Taml Nadu to bring out new IT, ITeS policy

Updated on: Thursday, December 22, 2011

Promising to provide an investor-friendly industrial policy framework, the Tamil Nadu government proposes to bring out a new Information Technology and IT enabled Services(ITeS) policy.

"The new policy would catapult the state to the numero uno position," Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said at the 'Connect 2011' conference. Noting that Tamil Nadu has emerged as a destination of choice for investors, she said the state remained one of the top three destinations in attracting Foreign Direct
Investments(FDI) in the country.

Jayalalithaa said software exports from Software Technology Parks of India(STPI) units in the state have touched Rs 42,100 crore. "If we include exports from IT-SEZ units, it is estimated to be above Rs 50,000 crore", she said, adding it would be the government's endeavour to sustain and stabilise this environment of optimism.

The Chief Minister said Tamil Nadu at present has more than 1,800 software and ITeS exporters, including 210 foreign wholly owned subsidiaries and MNCs in software development. Observing that the Indian information technology sector continued to be one of the sunshine sectors of the country's economy, showing rapid growth and promise, she said Tamil Nadu had carved out a pride of place in it.

"Not long ago, the popular perception of Chennai was that it is a coffee loving conservative city. From this perception, Chennai has now transformed into the San Jose of India with state-of-the-art IT parks", Jayalalithaa said, adding with one new company coming up every week, Chennai is all set to become the country's IT capital.

The IT-BPO sector in the country had aggregated revenues of USD 88.1 billion in this financial year, generating direct employment for about 2.5 million people, she said. The share of IT-BPO industry in the total Indian exports increased from less than four per cent in 1998 to 26 per cent this year, she said.

The Chief Minister said the state ranked primary with an annual turnout of nearly 1.92 lakh engineering graduates and equal number of trained polytechnic students, offering immense scope of establishment of knowledge based industries and services.

"Tamil Nadu is the most technically powerful knowledge state in the country, especially after Anna University has become the world's largest technical university," producing about 25 per cent of India's engineers and nearly 10 per cent of the world's engineering graduates, she said.

IT has powered the transformation of the State into a modern economy, clearly making it India's eastern gateway to the world, not just South Asia, Jayalalithaa said, adding her government believed in being pro-active and being an enabler to provide the "right attitude towards investors".

Taml Nadu to bring out new IT, ITeS policy

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